Anybody out landed a summer-run steelhead yet this season? Seems to me I may have seen a prior post relating to this; but, be that as it may, how is the season starting?

Last year I landed a fin-clipped summer-run on the Clackamas March 11. By April, the fish were coming in strong.

Cheers,

Eric

D3Smartie

04-10-2006, 08:18 PM

i know some gear guys got one out on the sol duc about a week ago.

juro

04-10-2006, 09:17 PM

Reminds me of my blissful years in steelhead country!

I must have been a bit of a late comer compared to the Oregon gang, but I usually got my first summer run on Father's Day weekend. A lot of this is because my area rivers were closed until June, another is that I always got the hall pass that weekend.

Boy some of those Fathers Day fish were the most memorable - thick shouldered and mean, bright as dimes and leaping like tarpon. Tearing up and down the rapids like they were standing still. The ones that were too hot to handle were ten times more memorable than those I landed, and the ones I did land were a feast for the eyes.

Good memories!

wilson

04-11-2006, 10:26 AM

Okay, can the new guy get a tip here. How do you differentiate a summer run in March/April from a late winter fish? Or will I "just know" when it up and hammers me?

-Chris

juro

04-11-2006, 10:36 AM

A fish that does not spawn until the following spring yet enters the river in spring, summer or fall. It has not matured sexually at sea and thus has no eggs or milt organs to speak of, yet the body is thick from rich fats and muscle in the stomach walls and flanks. It blends into the stones like an apparition, and is as full of fire as anything in nature despite it's ghost-like cloak and silent demeanor at rest in the bright summer flows. It is the alpha trout.

A few good ones this summer and the spring of 2007 later your angst for the PNW steelhead experience of late will vanish and you will never get steelhead out of your veins for the rest of your life.

fredaevans

04-11-2006, 08:37 PM

Good news? Several of the shorter north coast Oregon streams already have a few summer runs showing up. More than a bit early, but the locals are loving it!

SSPey

04-11-2006, 08:51 PM

summer fish in valley rivers above Willamette Falls are all hatchery origin, and winter fish are all wild, so an adipose distinguishes origin on my homewaters. They're "in"